What is the fuss about Brexit?

The United Kingdom held a referendum about leaving the EU.  LEAVE won 52% to 48%.  All hell has broken loose.  One has to wonder why?  Nothing has happened yet nor will anything for likely a couple of years, if ever. Yet the economy has gone to hell and racist bigots are out in the streets making life unbearable for anyone who is not "just like them".  Northern Ireland may look at joining the Republic of Ireland (Hallelujah) and Scotland will hold another independence referendum if UK leaves the EU.

The LEAVE group never expected to win and has absolutely no plans for the future. And people are changing their minds as fast as they can. The vote is not legally binding, though one can argue that it is morally binding.  Only the British parliament can make that decision.

Cameron resigned the Tory leadership and Farage today resigned the UKIP leadership.  Corbin is under pressure with the Labour Party as most Labour MPs voted REMAIN while Labour rank and file voted LEAVE. British political parties must elect new leadership and a general election must be called with each party clearly declaring its position on the EU.

Once a new government has been elected, then and ONLY then, can a decision be made and notice given, if in fact it is given at all.  Until then, it is all hysteria over nothing.

An acquaintance of mine sent this quote this morning: 

Edmund Burke, the intellectual father of British Conservatism, understood that a representative democracy was not a menu from which you chose the issues you were electing representatives to decide — and the ones you retained a personal veto on.  Our politicians are elected to make the hardest and most painful choices, not merely to decide what to spend where.

Burke defined the obligation eloquently for his Bristol voters, in a declaration that is powerful and relevant, two and half centuries later:

“Government and legislation are matters of reason and judgment and not of inclination ... Your representative owes you not his industry only, but his judgment: and he betrays instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”

In other words, governments are elected to govern.  The images of a waiter in a black waist coat, with a white towel over his arm, taking orders from the customers, that "serving the people" seems to conjure up in the minds of some people is nonsense.

Party platforms are there to provide voters with an informed choice at election time.  Parties lay out what they intend to do, based on input from their members and voted on a convention.  Once a government is formed it is up to the elected members to implement their platform.  Failure to do so, without the ability to convince the voters there was good reason, should result in their removal at the next election.  The notion that they should hold referenda rather than make decisions is a recipe for disaster.

That is why the selection of men to run for office and the selection of the voters is critical. In a democracy, the government is elected by YOU; they are not some alien other that appeared out of nowhere.

Celebrating Canada Day July 1, 2016

Source: Wikipedia

On July 1st, 1867, the British North America Act, passed by the British Parliament and signed by Queen Victoria, came into force, creating the Dominion of Canada.  Initially Canada consisted of a federation of four provinces while the remained of the provinces and three territories joined later.  Prior to that time they were administered by Great Britain. The BNA Act, Canada's Constitution was amended 16 times by the British Parliament, at the request of the Canadian Parliament.

The Canada Act, passed in 1982 by the British Parliament at the

Source: Wikipedia

request of Canada finally returned the Constitution to Canada and direct Canadian control.  The Brits would have done this long ago but the Canadians could not agree on a formula for amending the constitution until then.  The problem is Quebec and Ontario make up 23% and 38.5% of Canadian population respectively.  Alberta and BC together are slightly larger than Quebec.  The provinces rarely see eye-to-eye on anything. So we need a formula that is fair and is perceived to be fair, as the saying goes:

To change the Constitution using the general formula, the change needs to be approved by 1) the federal Parliament, 2) the Senate, and 3) a minimum number of provincial legislatures. There must be at least seven provinces that approve the change, representing at least 50% of Canada's population.

July 1st used to be called Dominion Day.  This was changed to Canada Day after 1982.

So what did we do today to celebrate Canada Day?  Went shopping for shoes in Krivii Rih.  Our taxi driver, Vitalik, collected us at about 9:00 am and we picked up Masha and Lina.  I needed shoes badly and am hard to fit.  They don't carry size 49 (14) in many stores for some reason.  Vitalik knew where the big Sport Master store was and that is where we went.  Two pairs of summer running shoes, a pair of winter running shoes and a pair of sandels later. . . 

None of their clothes fit me but they did have clothes Lina's size, so Lina and Tanya looked at them while Masha and I looked at bicycles and other sporting goods.  I found bike horns, with squeezy bulbs.  Took the biggest they had and went quietly up behind Tanya and honked it in her ear. Old geezers get bored easily and can always find something to do.

The little strip mall also had a Gloria Jeans so we went in there to look for clothes for Masha. No chairs.  I cleared a spot on a display bench and sat down to read.  That lasted until the manager caught me.  She sent me back to the dressing rooms where they had little seats.  Somehow being the lone male in a female dressing room area just didn't seem right. I went outside.

I got my McDonald's fix and we were home by 3:00.  

Roses and Lilies in Tanya's Garden

Tanya's flower gardens are responding to the good moisture we have had and the heat we are getting.  The roses and lilies are blooming, with the gladiolas to start in a week or two. Thought you might like to see some pictures.  Click to enlarge.

Exercises in Futility

Britain has beaten America in the race to vote against their own best interests and destroy their country.  However America will catch up in November.  Old white guys get one last kick at the can and are making sure it is a good one.  Frankly my dear (Don't call me Frankly) I don't give a damn about either one other than it is one step closer to throwing Ukraine and the rest of Eastern Europe under the Russian bus.

To keep my mind off of serious things, I have engaged in a series of make work projects.  My sock drawer doesn't take much time so I organized my music, see previous post.  And fight with my new smart phone whenever the spirit moves me. With PC in one hand and phone in the other, I Google "how do I . . ." on the PC and then try it on the phone. Finally got Skype to work on my phone and Viber on my PC. And downloaded a few useful apps.  My credit union has an android app but signing in has proved a problem.

I moved all my phone numbers from my old phone to my new phone via the SIM card.  If I had more than one number under a name, it broke them all into individual contacts, then duplicated some of them for Viber.  So instead of 75 names I have 300.  And will have to hand sort which will be even more work than if I had manually copied them in the first place.

Up to now, Tanya and I have been using wireless dial-up modems on each of our computers but performance has been mixed, with top download speeds of maybe 2 mbps.  Andrei just bought a Huawei EC5321 3G mobile WiFi transceiver and router with speeds of up to 14 mbps and brought it out to our place to try.  Worked like a dream.  I was downloading a movie at 4.4 mbps, unheard of in our location with our technology.  So I bought one, picked it up today.  About $100 CAD. Stuck it in the window and connected both mobile phones and both laptops.  Mobile phones worked wonderfully well. Laptops not so much.  S.L.O.W.  Packed it up and took it back to the Intertelekom dealer at Mir, along with my computer.

No idea what the problem was or what she did but 45 minutes later I was on my way home.  Worked as advertised.  Tanya and I both used our computers at the same time, everything loaded and downloaded faster than usual. I think we have moved our internet technology another step forward.

Not bad for a country where 15 years ago in rural areas it took four hours of trying and retrying to connect to a dial up modem on a land line and any file over 350 KB would not download before the connection was lost.

ORGANIZING MUSIC ON WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER

Over the years, I have collected a fair bit of music, going from LPs to tapes, to CDs and computer HD. Since I am not afraid of my own thoughts, I never went the Walkman, iPod, constant noise in my ears route, preferring decent speakers to earbuds.

My new laptop, when it arrives, will not even have a CD/DVD player, so I decided to rip all my remaining unripped CDs to HD.  That along with downloaded music and contributions from others added up to about 6400 songs when I was finished.  Not a lot compared to some but enough.

One would think that ripping a CD to HD would be simple enough. The files would include the cover, the names of the songs and the artist(s).  No such luck, unless they were high priced commercial single artist(s).  Compilations are a problem, as are private label CDs, CDs from tapes or from LPs. My Music folder was an absolute mess and Windows Media Player was no better.

Seeking a make work project that did not involve physical effort, I decided to organize my music.  Someone said iTunes worked well.  Nope. Maybe on Apple stuff, not on PC. Decided to stick with WMP and do the best I could.  I pass on the following in case it is useful to someone. 

• Set Windows Explorer to View hidden system files on all folders.  Also set all folders to open as large icons.  This makes it easy to clean up album cover messes.
• Download and install MP3tag www.mp3tag.de/en/download.html.  The is a free program though the programmer would appreciate a few bucks if you like it.  It will list all music tracks with all information (tags) and can be sorted 16 ways to breakfast. 
• With Windows Explorer, Windows Media Player and MP3tag all open and switching back and forth, it is easy to add titles to tracks, names and artists to albums, and album art.
• To change individual tracks with oddball formats to MP3, I found this on line: Audio converter - http://www.online-convert.com/result/ac960ba92dfc4edcb965956964e408ad

What to Write?

Muhammad Ali and Gordie Howe both hung up their gloves in the past couple weeks.  Tremendous losses to their sports.  And to humanity.

The Orlando massacre brought the usual Christians out to rejoice in the murder of anyone not like them and provided grist for more outrage about America's lunatic gun culture.  As one editorial put it, Sandy Hook marked the end of any serious attempt at gun control.  Once you decide it is OK to kill children, anything goes.  And the ammosexuals are now claiming Wounded Knee as the perfect example of why citizens need guns to protect themselves from government.  US Cavalry disarmed a group of Sioux and then shot them all including 200 women and children.

There is a great deal less difference between American and Russian democracy that one might think.  Anyone following the Democratic primaries knew the fix was in.  Now they have proof and are going to court.

Racketeering Lawsuit Exposing Nationwide Vote Rigging in DNC Primaries Could Derail Clinton

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/election-fraud-rico-lawsuit-alleging-widespread-e-vote-rigging-dnc-primaries-derail-clinton-nomination/#iVSl9Ib5phMTbGt4.99

Those electronic voting machines are something wonderful.  They gave Bush the presidency the second time when Ohio suddenly switched sides.  They have been shown time and time again to be totally unreliable except for fixing votes.  So why use them?  Other countries managed to actually count ballots, though I hear Putin is interested in them as busing people from poll to poll is expensive.  Erdogan should try them too.  Then the electricity wouldn't have to simultaneously go out during ballot counting in all major centres across Turkey.

Do Russians Want War? 

http://carnegie.ru/2016/06/14/do-russians-want-war/j1u8?

This article from Carnegie Moscow Centre is a long read but if you want to know what is going on inside Russia today, worth your time.

Oh, yes.  And Saskatchewan's beloved Premier, Harper wannabe Brad Wall successfully won reelection by hiding the true nature of Saskatchewan's finances, only to reveal afterwards that the province is begining in to look like it did in 1987 under Grant Devine.  After negotiating a 1.9% raise for Saskatchewan's teachers for this year, he has just announced that the government will fund only half and the school boards are stuck for the rest of it.

http://globalnews.ca/news/1827434/saskatchewan-teachers-province-agree-on-new-four-year-contract/
http://cjme.com/article/694924/sask-government-will-only-fund-half-teachers-pay-increase

This is old news but does indicate a return to business as usual with the Canadian government of Justin Trudeau.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/liberals-accused-of-breaking-promise-to-uphold-sacred-obligation-to-veterans-1.2908124

The Outdoor Irishman, Paddy O'Furniture

Our cheap plastic lawn chairs and tables were getting old and brittle.  Since Tanya and I are also, we decided it was time to upgrade to something a bit more sturdier.

Our taxi driver friend Vitalik offered to take us to Krivii Rih for a very reasonable price, mostly to escape work, I think.  We (Tanya, Lina, and I) left about 10:30 and were home by 5:30.  I got my McDonald's fix but we spent most of our time at our favourite store - Epicentre.  It is a combination of Home Depot, Rona and Home Outfitters.  

Tanya headed for patio furniture and I headed for tools and hardware.  I cruised the four aisles of tools and went to see how Tanya was making out. She eventually decided on what she wanted and then we went to buy my power tools. Makita 3x18 belt sander, Makita 7 1/2" circular saw, and a Bosch 1/4 cordless drill. Tanya took an hour and a half; I took 10 minutes. But she had more choice and bought more stuff.

After that we went to see what they had for lumber. Lumber, as we know it in North America, ie S4S nominal dimension, is a scarce item.  Most of the kiln dried and milled lumber is tongue and groove, or shaped specifically for certain purposes.  The closest I found to "lumber" was the equivalent of 1x4 10 ft long.  Tanya says we can buy the kind of lumber I want in Dnipro over the internet and have them deliver. For rough stuff, I can buy the green boards from the saw mill a block from here.  

The patio furniture was delivered Monday about 4:00 pm.  We were ready and organized. We had a set of two chairs and a table we bought 8 years ago to put on the balcony and when we got it upstairs we couldn't get it through the balcony door.  We left it as it filled a space in our small (emergency) spare room.  (We call it the "Blue Room" as the wallpaper is blue).  Monday, I hauled the chairs downstairs and using a ladder lifted them up the outside of the house to Tanya.  Then I tore the table apart and managed to squeeze it out the door.

Now we can drink tea on our balcony of an evening

 Tanya bought a really nice set to replace it in the blue room. Much more comfortable and not as big and clunky looking.

A place to read when it is windy or raining outside

The pièce de résistance was a five-piece set of glass-topped table, coffee table, love seat and two arm chairs.  Unassembled.  The instructions were in pictographs and easy to follow. I marveled at the engineering design.  First off, how they got it all in the box.  Second, how everything fit together like it was supposed to. There were six spots where a bolt could only be tightened 1/8 of a turn at a time and there was EXACTLY just enough room to do that.

We put one arm chair and the coffee table in the entry and the big table, love seat and armchair on the front landing. My deck just isn't big enough.

We will take the plastic off the cushions.